Pneumatic motor for controlling-sheets of musical instruments.



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l M. CLARK.

PNEUMATIC MOTOR FOR CONTROLLING SHEETS 0F MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS.

APPLICATION IILIID NOV. 12, 1902. RENEWED APB. 24.1905.

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N0. 796;'706-. I PATENTED AUG.8,1905.

' M. CLARK.

PNEUMATIC MOTOR FOR CONTROLLING SHEETS OF MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS.

APPLICATION FILED NOV. 12. 1902. RENEWED APR. 24.1905.

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MELVILLE CLARK, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS. PNEUMATIC MOTOR FOR CONTROLLING-SHEETS 0F MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS.

No. 796,706. Specification of Letters Patent. Patented Aug. 8, 1905. Application filed November 12, 1902. Renewed April 24, 1905. Serial No. 257,096.

latter left or right for engagement with the clutch member 9 to rotate the roll 2 or for engagement with the clutch member 10 to rotate through the connections described the roll 3 in the opposite direction.

For rotating the crank-shaft 7 I provide the motor-pneumatics 18 18 18, whose vibrating Walls 18 are connected, respectively, by pitmen 19 19 19 with the wrists of the cranks 2O 2O 20 on'the shaft 7 the shaft being preferably made integral with the cranks by being bent to form them, as seen clearly in Fig. 1. The cranks are located at intervals of one hundred and twenty degrees about the axis of the shaft and the pitmen operating all toward the same side of the shaft. This arrangement makes it possible always to start the shaft and maintain its motion by one or the other of the motor-pneumatics. It Will be seen that if by any means the pneumatics can be alternately inflated and deflated, so as to be expanded and collapsed in regular order successively, they will maintain the rotation of the shaft. For this purpose the pneumatics are each connected through a port 21 and passage 22 with a valve-chamber 23, from one side of which, by way of port 2&, communication is afforded with a chamber 25, which is substantially an extension of the exhaust or vacuum chamber of the instrument, the communication with the latter being made by way of the passage 26, leading to the valve-chamber 27, which at the side of the valve opposite that at which passage 26 communicates is connected by the pipe 28 to the said vacuum-chamber. (Not shown.) The valve-chamber 23 communicates with the atmosphere through a port 29 at the side opposite the port 24:. A valve-stem 30, which extends axially With respect to both ports 2 k and 29, carries the double valve or two-part valve comprising a member or valve 31, adapted to seat at the inner margin of the port 29, and a member or valve 32, adapted to seat similarly at the inner margin of the port 24:. These two valve members 31 and 32 are located on the stem 30 between stops 33 and 34, and between them on the stem there is a spring 35, tending by its reaction to hold them apart and against their respective stops. The stem 30 is connected by the link or pitman 36 with the outer member 37 of an eccentric whose inner member 38 is fast on the shaft 7 The eccentrics 37 38 for each of the double valves pertaining to the pneumatics, respectively, are adjusted on the shaft T0 alt whom it pea/y concern.-

Be it known that I, MELVILLE CLARK, a citizen of the United States. and aresident of Chicago. Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Pneumatic Motors for Controlling-Sheets of Musical Instruments, of which the following is a specification, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, forminga part thereof.

The purpose of this invention is to provide improved mechanism for giving the necessary motion of travel to the perforated sheets which control the operation of automatic musical instruments or players; but the mechanism is adapted also to serve as a pneumatic motor for any purpose.

It consists of the features of construction which are set out in the claim.

In the drawings, Figure 1 is a top plan of my motor mechanism. showing a portion of the controlling-sheet and its carrying-rollers, the cover of the regulating-valve device being broken away to show said device. Fig. 2 is a fore-and-aft vertical section at the line 2 2 on Fig. 1. Fig. 3 is a section at the line 3 3 3 3 on Fig. 1.

My improved motor is shown as mounted upon the frame of an automatic musical instrument or player. of which the perforated sheet is shown at 1, with the roller on which the sheet is Wound when playing at 2, and the storage or rewind roller at 3. 4 is the cheek in which the roller-shafts are journaled. A gear 5 on the shaft of the roller 2 is driven by a train which terminates in the pinion 6, said pinion being loose on the crank-shaft 7, hereinafter more particularly described, and being actuated by a clutch 8, which is feathered on said shaft so as to rotate therewith and adapted to slide right and left thereon, its movement to the left causing it to engage a cooperating clutch device 9 on the face of the pinion 6, and its movementto the right causing it similarly to engage a cooperating clutch device 10 on the face of the sprocket-wheel 11, which is also loose on the shaft 7, and by means of the chain 12, passing around the sprocket-wheel 13 on the shaft it, drives the roller 3. A vertical rock-shaft 15, having suitable bearings mounted on the cheek 4:, has a lever-arm 16 at the lower end, which extends forward and protrudes from the face of the case in position to be manipulated by the operator. At the upper end of the rock-shaft is a lever-arm 17. which engages the slot 8 in the periphery of the clutch 8 to shift the 7 in proper relation to the cranks which are, operated by the pneumatics, respectively, substantially as seen in Fig. 2, so that the valve member 31 is seated and the valve member 32 is off its seat when the pneumatic is expanded and the crank which it operates is in position to be driven by its collapse in the direction in which the shaft should rotate, and the valves are adjusted on the stem and with relation to their respective seats so that the valve 32 is seated a little time before the pneumatic has been permitted to become fully collapsed by the rotation of the shaft. The spring 35, it will be understood, and the range of movement which it and the stops 33 34 permit to the valves 31 82 are necessary in order that the communication of the valve-chamber 23 with the exhaust-chamber through the chamber 24 and connecting-passages described may be closed before the communication of said valvechamber with the atmosphere is opened and also that the latter valve shall not be opened so as to admit atmospheric pressure to the pneumatic until the full collapsing movement of the latter has been performed by the continuance of the rotation of the shaft 7 through the necessary number of degrees to bring the crank 20 at the opposite side of the shaft from connection of the pitman 19 with the pneumatic. This construction. it will be observed, causes the rotation of the shaft. which is produced by the collapse ofthe pneumatics successively to operate the valves, which in their turn control the pneumatics by giving them alternately communication with the exhaust-chamber and with the atmosphere. The speed of the motor, it will be understood, will depend upon the freedom of the communication of the pneumatics with the exhaust-chamber, the difference between whose tension and that of the atmosphere is the source of power, and for the purpose of regulating the speed there is provided a valve-chamber 27, having in it a valve 27, whose stem 39 extends out through the end of the chamber and is provided with a rack 40, which is engaged by a pinion 41, whose shaft 42 extends out through the case and -is provided with an operatinghandle 43 and an index-finger 44, whereby the operator may by rotating said handle slide the valve 27 and indicate by the index-finger 44 the position of the valve with respect to the port 27, which the valve controls. A certain minimum amount of openingis necessary to operate the mechanism at all, and from this minimum amount it is desirable in regulating the speed from the lowest point upward to be able to increase the opening very gradually; but after a moderate speed is obtained the further increase of the speed requires less nicety of adjustment in order to make the increase sufficiently gradual. To adapt the device to these requirements, I make the opening 27*, as shown, having a portion 27 at the end, where it is first uncovered by withdrawing the valve, rectangular and substantially of the full width of said opening at its Widest part. From this rectangular portion the opening is first diminished abruptly to a very narrow throat at 27., and from this throat it widens gradually by tapering to the point 27 and thence on it continues of substantial uniform wid th to the end. It will be understood without further explanation that the slidingof the valve by the means described increases the air communication and so the speed at which the motor will operatein a manner consistent with the requirements as above set out.

I have shown a construction in which exhaust-bellows are employed and in which the air-tension for operating the pneumatics is eXhaust-tensionz'. 6., in which the force derived is measured by the excess of atmospheric tension over the tension of the air within the pneumatics. It will be obvious that the structure could readily be adapted for using compressed instead of rarefied air and that in either case it is the difference between atmospheric tension and the artificially-produced tension, whether greater or less than atmospheric. which does the work, and I employ the term air under tension to express this difference, whether the tension artificially produced is greater or less than atmospheric.

I claim In a pneumatic motor, in combination with a sou rce of air under tension; the motor-pneumatics; the crank-shaft, and the connections by which the pneumatics operate the shaft for rotation; a valve-chamber for each pneumatic which communicates with the pneumatic and which has ports respectively communicating with the source of air under tension and with the atmosphere; a valve in said chamber having two members adapted to close the last two mentioned ports respectively; a spring which tends to hold.said valve members apart and stops limiting their separation at a distance whichpermits them to be both seated at the same time; means by which the rotation of the crank-shaft reciprocates the valve-stem to carry said valve members alternately to their respective seats, whereby the yielding of-the spring permits the valve members alternately to be drawn from their seats, each when the other member is seated.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand, in the presence of two witnesses, at Chicago, Illinois, this 31st day of October,

MELVILLE CLARK. In presence of lime. S. BURTON, FRED. G. FIsoHER. 

